A PARTICULAR REVIEW 25 



ing of wings and outcries of distress, and then directly 

 onwards in long excursion skims the ground to tempt 

 him to follow. The heath-hen and the wild-duck 

 employ the same fluttering device to lead astray the 

 hot pursuing spaniel. Of the heron Thomson merely 

 remarks the strength of its upward flight and its 

 peculiar shriek. The bittern, now rare, but no The 



260 uncommon resident in our island in his day, he faith- 

 fully describes as impatient to secure a mate in the 

 early spring. He seems, however, to give credence to 

 the absurd tradition that its drumming or booming in 

 the marsh (which earned for it the name of the ' bull- 

 o'-the-bog') is produced by its ' engulphing ' its bill in 

 the bog water and at the same time uttering the cry 

 which is characteristic of the male in the mating season. 

 It is now known that the booming proceeds from the 

 trumpet -like bill and throat turned upwards into the 



270 air in a direction almost vertical. 



The birds of prey in Thomson's list include the owl, Birds of 

 the cormorant, the raven, the hawk, and the eagle. P rey ' 

 He remarks on the wheeling flight and discordant 

 scream of the cormorant as, on the approach of 

 tempestuous weather, it hurries inland for shelter and 

 food. His owl, like Gray's in the ivy-mantled tower 

 of Stoke-Poges Church, mopes but we know of its 

 presence by its assiduous hooting. The hawk's nest 

 in the beetling cliff is pointed out ; and the raven's 



280 figure is picturesque, because with solitary daring and 

 with a contempt of the scowling sky he adventures 

 forth into the dark expanse of a threatening thunder- 

 cloud. But Thomson has more to say of the royal The Eagle 

 bird, the eagle, whose strength of pinion, piercing 

 keenness of vision, and fierce intolerance not only of 



